One of the world’s oldest cigar marques, Partagas was founded in Havana in 1845 by the Spanish émigré Don Jaime Partagás y Ravell. The factory he established, Real Fábricas de Tabaco Partagás, is one of the must-see attractions in Cuba, and its famous façade is one of... the cigar world’s best-known symbols. The Partagas company benefited greatly from its ownership of many of the Vuelta Abajo region’s best plantations, affording the company some of the world’s best tobacco to make its cigars. Don Jaime is accredited as an experimental sort who was revolutionary in cigar production, and is even purported to have been the first to hire a “lector” to read to the torcedores as they rolled cigars in his factory. In either 1864 or 1868 (depending on which book you read) Don Jaime was murdered on one of his plantations, supposedly by a love rival. His son, José Partagás, took over the business and it thrived throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century, when it acquired the rights to the Ramón Allones brand. At all times, Partagas was one of Cuba’s most revered marques, and by the ‘90s, it was second only to Montecristo in terms of annual sales (at the time some 10 million Partagas cigars were sold each year!). Today, we think of Partagas cigars as intensely full-bodied, complex, spicy smokes, destined for the more experienced cigar smoker. Their Serie D No. 4, an excellent and incredibly popular robusto, remains a flagship for the brand.